


the beating of my heart

by orphan_account



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff, Multi, Polyamory, Post Game, Post Portal 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2014-10-26
Packaged: 2018-02-22 15:17:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2512367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chell is exhausted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the beating of my heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ab2fsycho](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ab2fsycho/gifts).



She comes back in and she is exhausted. The outside world was just not worth dealing with - not in this state of disrepair. It's not completely totaled, not in the way you'd think. But there are mutants everywhere - plants with razor-sharp teeth, animals with elongated limbs, humans adept at seeing in the darkest of environments and managing to land a hit without really aiming. They weren't all homicidal maniacs or cannibals, but enough of them were that Chell didn't feel safe leaving the Enrichment Center without the Portal Gun - even though it really wasn't of any use. Hardly any of the surfaces were prime for Portal usage. Even if they were, GLaDOS hated it when she took testing equipment out of the Center. Wheatley said it was because GLaDOS was afraid she simply wouldn't come back. GLaDOS denied the implication, but was never able to come up with a decent excuse or explanation for the real answer.

 

Chell only rolled her eyes. She knew Wheatley had a point, and on some level she didn't really know why she kept coming back. Both of these metal lunatics had tried to kill her at some point, but all the same they were all she had. Her only friends, and boy what a scary notion that was.

 

Chell hasn't told either of them what she does when she's out, but they'll know soon enough. Hopefully they can all escape this time or, at the very least, have a little more flexibility in their lives. 

 

Is it really life if it's never going to end? 

 

Chell sighs at her own internal thoughts and slides down the cool panels of the wall. Wheatley looks down at her from his management rail. He looks like an eye, crinkling in anxiety, like he doesn't know what to say. GLaDOS isn't in the room, per say, but she is everywhere in the Center. "Am I sensing some hostility from you?" Her voice gets a little darker. "Should I throw Wheatley out the window again? I can do that, you know."

 

"What? No! No! I haven't done anything."

 

"Tired," Chell mutters.The exposure to real light and air has made her head start to pound, and she closes her eyes. Life is nothing more than a nightmare right now. She'd cry if she were capable of it, but she's gotten so tough and this has become all she can remember. She slides down, and wonder how it would feel on her feet to take off the boots and braces for once. If she's even capable of doing it.

 

Her eyes fly open and when she can feel herself being moved. They widen in fear and confusion, until it occurs to her that this is supposed to be happening. GLaDOS is moving her along through the Center. It would be a really interesting viewpoint if the lack of control wasn't causing her to freeze. She's weary, so weary about what this means. 

 

To her surprise, she isn't lead back to Her Chamber, or to His - wherever it is Wheatley goes when he's not messing around with the turret production lines and accidentally insulting Chell's humanity. No, she's back in her own room, her own relaxation chamber. She's dropped unceremoniously on her bed. "Oh, sorry about that." GLaDOS says. Chell thinks she might mean it, for once.

 

Wheatley comes in the room, slowly and quietly as possible despite how much the rail has been squeaking lately. His eye closes over, and he starts emitting some sort of classical music.

 

Chell's eyes close again. Before she drifts off to sleep, she feels her covers being pulled over her. A turret says, "Goodnight."


End file.
